One Fate
by dancingirl87
Summary: Journey. Courtney and Jason are both after the same thing. Will they fight each other for it, or let romance take over and work together? And also, will they win against the person going against them both?
1. Prologue

Prologue  
  
Jason Morgan crept soundlessly and invisibly around the side of MacTavish International Museum of Art and History. At the far back corner, shrouded in darkness was Jason's target. The staff security entrance. It didn't have any alarms set to it, and it was also poorly guarded, The security guards were lazy and very rarely traipsed all the way to the back of the four story building to check on the staff quarters. After all, who in their right mind would think to break in through that entrance? Answer: Jason Morgan  
  
Jason reached the single black metal door and reached into the pack he carried across his broad chest. He pulled out a sharp metal object and crouched by the door handle. Almost lazily, Jason expertly picked the lock, then quietly opened the door and slipped in.   
  
He was dressed for the part of the cat burglar, in tight black jeans, a black sweater, a black ski cap, and black leather gloves. Once he was inside, Jason stuck the pick back in his pack and crept silently through the staff quarters. All of the daytime museum employees were off by now, so the quarters were deserted. Jason had memorized the floor plan of the museum so he slipped through doorways and sidled down hallways until he emerged into the Egyptian Exhibit.   
  
The room was filled with all sorts of gold trinkets and beautiful gems, but Jason bypassed them all and kept travelling through the museum, making sure to keep out of sight of the security cameras. The next room was the Middle Ages Exhibit, and the next room was the Renaissance Exhibit. Jason passed through both rooms but stopped in the doorway of the next.   
  
It was the French Arts Exhibit, and featured paintings by all the famous French artists, and also clay pieces and jewellery charms. Jason looked around the large room at all the displays for a moment, then his gaze centred on the glass case situated in the centre of the room.   
  
He moved forward silently, his hands instinctively reaching out to the case. He couldn't believe it. He was here; it was here.   
  
"It's gone," said a voice from behind him.  
  
***  
  
10 Minutes Earlier  
  
Courtney Mathews crawled through the second floor window that let you into the Egyptian Exhibit. The window, being on the second floor, had no alarm on it, so it had been quite simple for Courtney to secure a rope on the roof and climb up the side of the building to let herself in.   
  
Now she stood, in the Egyptian Exhibit, and admired her surroundings. No matter how many times she did this, Courtney couldn't help marvelling at the beautiful things she came across. The emeralds were so green. The gold was so... gold. Shaking her head at herself, Courtney strode through the rooms, able to walk around without worry. She had disabled all of the security cameras for this floor, and it would be undetectable, until she reactivated them.   
  
Courtney reached the French Arts Exhibit and walked right towards the glass display case in the middle of the room. Contained in it was what Courtney had waited her whole life for. But as she drew closer to the case a bad feeling began to brew in Courtney's stomach. Something was wrong.  
  
Courtney peered in the case and gasped.  
  
"No," She breathed, not believing what she was seeing. "It's gone."  
  
***  
  
The female voice from behind Jason startled him immensely. He whirled around and faced a beautiful woman, clothed all in black like him, leaning against the doorjamb to the Exhibit room.  
  
"If you don't believe me, you can look for yourself." Seeing him glance up at the ceiling she said, "Don't worry I disabled the cameras."  
  
Jason looked at her with disbelief. Who was she? "Who are you?" He asked, peering closely at her face, while trying to appear disinterested. She had blonde hair, he could see, because wisps were falling out from under her black ski cap, where she had tucked up her hair. She was tiny, maybe 5' 3" at the most, and was thin as far as Jason could see.  
  
"That's not important," Courtney said. "What is important is that someone beat us to it."  
  
Jason scowled. He wasn't happy he was now the third person the break into the Museum and the second one to fail. "How do I know you didn't take it?" He asked, turning his dark scowl on Courtney.  
  
"You don't. But really, why would I hang around here and wait for you if I already had it?"  
  
"Okay," Jason relented. "Well then, who did take it?"  
  
"I don't know, but I'll find out. Believe me. The Divine Chance is mine. It always has been." Courtney turned and began to walk out of the room. "See you later."  
  
Jason's mouth fell open. Who did this girl think she was? The Divine Chance was his!   
  
"Oh yeah, you might want to get out now," Courtney yelled from the end of the rooms as alarms began to siren. "I only set the cameras to deactivate for ten minutes." With that she took off and quickly disappeared.  
  
Jason looked around, rolled his eyes and ran through the rooms out of the Museum.  
  
tbc...  
  
Well, did you like it? Hate it? Any and all feedback is VERY appreciated! I want to know what you guys think! This is only my first Journey fic, so I'm not really sure about it! 


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One  
  
Jason paced his spacious hotel room, hands clasped behind his back, and his face in a permanent scowl. He had changed out of his black clothing and now wore faded jeans and a light blue T-shirt. His feet were bare and sunk into the plushy green carpeting that covered the entire suite.  
  
"How? How is it gone? And who took it? Who could have beaten me? I'm supposed to be the best. I am the best," Jason muttered angrily to himself.  
  
"Jase, sweetie, you need to stop pacing," Carly Benson advised, lounging on the king sized bed situated in the middle of the room. "The hotel's going to make you pay to put down new carpets."  
  
"I didn't get it," Jason replied, pacing some more and completely ignoring Carly. "How did I not get it?" Jason asked. He stopped walking and faced Carly; his arms open in a questioning position. "I am the best, am I not?"  
  
"You're best," Carly agreed in a monotone voice, looking bored. She leaned back on her elbows and inspected her fingernails. "I need more polish."  
  
"I haven't failed, ever, have I?"   
  
"Never," Carly replied in the same monotone voice, sliding off the bed and wandering into the adjoining bathroom.   
  
"Carly!" Jason yelled, "You're not helping me!"  
  
"So what?" Carly yelled back, pawing through the drawers for her nail polish. "Go talk to your partner in crime. I'm busy!"  
  
Jason growled and stalked through a door at the end of the room, that led to the neighbouring hotel room, where Sonny Corinthos was cheering loudly for a hockey game on TV.   
  
Sonny looked up when Jason came in and grinned at him, showing off the dimples Carly secretly adored. "Hey man, Carly finally kicked you out?"  
  
"No," Jason snapped, flopping down on one of the two double beds in the room. "I left by myself for your information."  
  
Sonny sighed and turned away from the TV to face Jason. "Okay, look Jase. I know you messed up tonight, and you didn't get the Chance. And I also know that some unknown person and some strange girl also beat you to it, but lighten up Jase. It's not the end of the world. You know Carly is a whiz and she'll figure out who turned off the cameras, and we'll track down the Chance and get it back for you. So you need to stop snapping at us both, and you also need to stop scowling at anything and everything that you see." With that Sonny turned back around to the TV in time to see the game-winning goal. "YEAH!" He yelled, flinging his arms in the air and leaping up.  
  
Jason sat up and leaned against the headboard, attempting to lock his attention on the hockey game in front of him, but his head was roaring with thoughts. He guessed Sonny was right. The three of them did seem to always find what they didn't get. Ever since the second grade when Carly had lost her favourite bracelet and Sonny and Jason had interrogated everyone who had come into contact with her, and searched out every lead they got, as best they could, being seven and all, until they found the bracelet.  
  
Jason grinned to himself. He could still picture the buttery yellow of Carly's pigtails, the grey of the stormy clouds that had threatened when he and Sonny had unearthed the trinket, and also the exact number of charms Carly had had on her bracelet then. Seven, one for each year she had been alive.  
  
Of course, now she had twenty-three, and could barely life her arm when she actually wore the twenty pound bangle.  
  
It was Jason's keen eye for detail and awesome memory that made him an excellent thief. He could remember an entire room almost perfectly after only being in it once, and could also picture exact colours of things in his head.  
  
Right now he was picturing the shining, golden blonde that was the exact same colour as the wisps of hair that had poked out so adorably from under her cap. They had framed her face so perfectly, making her skin almost glow in the dim light of the room, and also making her eyes shine almost unearthly.  
  
Her eyes. They had been blue, like his own, but different, Jason remembered. They had had a special kind of sheen to them that had made them almost sparkle. It had looked like they had tiny gold flecks spiralling around in them.  
  
Out of the blue, a pillow flew out of the air and whacked Jason on the side of his head, bringing him out of his thoughts.  
  
"Sheesh Jase, we've been calling you for like twenty minutes," Carly complained, crossing her arms over her chest. "We're going to go and grab a movie from the store down the road."  
  
"There's nothing on Pay Per View," Sonny added from next to Carly.  
  
"Right," Carly said, "So we're going to go and get something. Want to come with, or are you going to stay here and mope?"  
  
Thinking back to where his thoughts had gone before, and also remembering Sonny's little speech Jason replied, "I'm coming with you guys. Like I'd let you pick out a movie Lee. I know you'll get a chick flick."  
  
"Hey!" Carly protested. "Sonny would be there."  
  
"Yeah, but he's so in love with you, he's not going to argue with you," Jason tossed back, grinning cagily at Sonny.  
  
"I am not in love with Carly," Sonny objected, spinning on his heel and throwing the hotel room door open. "You're an idiot Jase."  
  
"Hey Sonny! Thanks a lot. That made me feel great," Carly responded, scowling at Sonny and stalking down the hallway ahead of Jason and Sonny.   
  
"Thanks Jase," Sonny said, rolling his eyes. "Now we really have to get a chick flick to make her feel better, or else she'll be in a tiff for weeks. At least we had a chance before."  
  
Jason laughed and locked the hotel room door. "Oh well. At least she'll talk the whole way through it, like usual, so we won't even hear it."  
  
"True, true. I'll meet you in the lobby," Sonny said. "I'll go catch up with Carly and try to apologize."  
  
"Okay," Jason replied. Sonny took off and Jason was left alone with his thoughts again. Just what he had wanted to avoid, because he was starting to think that he had feelings for a girl he didn't even know the name of.  
  
tbc...  
  
What did you think? Please leave me something!!!! 


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two  
  
Six thirty the next morning found Courtney stumbling out of her bedroom to answer the front door. She wore red plaid pyjama pants, an oversized white T-shirt and her long blonde hair, which had been twisted up on top of her head last night, was now in a tangled mess around her face.  
  
Courtney reached the door, twisted the handle and opened the door.   
  
"Your paper, ma'am," the hotel waiter on the other side of the door told her.  
  
"What?" Courtney asked blearily, bracing herself on the doorjamb. She stared groggily at the middle-aged man, and furrowed her eyebrows.  
  
The man shifted from foot to foot. "You specifically asked that we deliver the morning paper to you at precisely six thirty this morning, no exceptions."  
  
"Oh," Courtney said, reaching for the newspaper in his hand. "Right." She laughed. "Sorry about that. You know, its early and all."  
  
"Yes, ma'am. Have a good day." The man turned to leave.  
  
"Yeah," Courtney said. A good day. Right. Courtney Mathews never had a good day. Like last night. Last night was the mother of all bad days. Okay, well, nights, but same difference.   
  
Courtney closed the door, shaking her head, and headed into the kitchen to fix her some breakfast. She threw the paper on the table, and went about the room, popping bread in the toaster, getting orange juice out of the fridge, and finally sitting herself down at the table. She nibbled on a slice of toast as she picked up the paper that had been delivered. Courtney's eyes widened as she took in the front page.  
  
"That was fast," Courtney commented to herself. There was a huge splashy article on the front page detailing all the facts about the theft, and the Chance. Surprised that the museum had let the burglary leak to the press so soon, Courtney quickly read the article and then threw it down on the table.  
  
So there was going to be a press conference, huh. That was another surprising thing. Why have a press conference? No good could come from that. What was the thief going to do, show up and say 'Here I am! Come arrest me?'  
  
Courtney snickered as she got an idea. One thief was going to show up, although she wouldn't mention anything, of course. And hey, maybe another handsome bandit would show up too, once he caught word of the conference.  
  
Courtney mentally scolded herself. "Don't even go there," she said, finishing off her toast and getting up from the table. "I'm not. I'm not going to fall for a guy who is after the same thing as me. No matter how built he is, or how blue his eyes are or..." Courtney leaned against the counter, and smiled dreamily. "No. Not going there." Courtney shook her head again. The phone rang, preventing Courtney from following her train of thought, and she leapt up from the table to answer it.  
  
"Hello?" Courtney asked, twirling the phone cord around her fingers.  
  
"Hi darling! How is your vacation going? Have you met any hunks? What is the weather like?" The bubbly, floaty voice of Janine Mathews drifted over the telephone wires and into Courtney's ear. Courtney rolled her eyes and sighed.  
  
"Hi mom. I'm doing fine. How are you?"  
  
"Oh I'm fantastic, dear. The weather is just perfectly balmy here and I've been down to the beach a lot lately. A lot of fine specimens, if you know what I mean."   
  
Courtney could just picture her mother ogling all the guys around her, and shook her head to get that picture out of her head.   
  
"I didn't need to know that," Courtney said.   
  
"Oh, well, okay then. You have fun then sweetie, and I'll let you go. I have to get off to work soon, you know."  
  
Courtney remembered that it was two hours later in Port Charles, and said, "Okay mom, I'll talk to you soon. Say hi to everyone for me."  
  
"I will. Bye darling."  
  
"Bye," Courtney echoed, hanging up the phone. "Well, there's nothing like a stimulating conversation with mom to start off the day," Courtney said to herself, shaking her head. She walked into the bedroom to get changed for the press conference.  
  
Half an hour later Courtney emerged from the bedroom dressed in a smart powder blue skirt and jacket that almost perfectly matched the colour of her eyes. Her hair was in a French twist and she had applied mascara and lipstick.   
  
Courtney stopped by the desk in the corner of the hotel room, and shoved all the papers that she had accumulated on the Chance inside her navy briefcase. Then she grabbed her keys and left the room, headed for the museum.  
  
It took only ten minutes, and a few speedy yellow lights for Courtney to grab a parking spot in the crowded lot five minutes before the conference was going to start. She leapt out and speed walked to where there was a crowd of press gathering around a small podium in front of the museum. Courtney pushed her way through the crowd until she had enough standing room, and spot near the front of the crowd. She had a good view of the podium, and would be able to see everything that went on.  
  
A few minutes later a tall woman with short brown hair, dressed in a trim suit gracefully stepped up to the podium. "Ahem. Welcome. Thank you all for your interest in the MacTavish International Museum of Art and History. My name is Marjory Bowers. As most of you know, one of our most treasured pieces, the Divine Chance was taken from its display case sometime last night. The Chance is a statuette, cast in bronze, circa 1650. It was rumoured to have been owned by..."  
  
Courtney sighed and tuned out the droning voice of the Ms. Bowers, and casually turned to scan the crowd. Maybe the real thief would come back, and give something away by... Well by doing something theify. Rolling her eyes at her own idiocy, Courtney scanned each face in the crown, looking for something. Anything.  
  
"Ohmigod," Courtney whispered, quickly turning back around. "He's here!" Then she rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'm acting like I'm fourteen. I'm not an innocent little girl, and he's not my high school crush." She took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm good."  
  
The elderly man standing to Courtney's left gave her a strange look, and shifted away from her. When his attention went back to the podium Courtney made a face at him and rolled her eyes. Then she slowly turned around to inspect the guy.  
  
He was dressed casually in jeans and a deep green T-shirt, and was standing with his arms crossed across his chest, apparently listening closely to Ms. Bowers. He looked better in the daylight.  
  
Much better.  
  
All of a sudden, he turned to look in the crowd, as if he could tell she was looking at him, and his eyes came to rest on her face. Those beautiful blue eyes drifted away, then snapped back full of recognition.   
  
"Uh, oh," Courtney muttered, biting her lip. "Time to go."  
  
Courtney gently began pushing her was through the throng of people, muttering 'excuse me' and 'sorry' to an infinite number of people before she was even halfway out. She was almost to the edge of the crowd when a loud, unusually high voice screeched out, "Courtney!"  
  
***  
  
On the other side of the crowd Jason was making his way through the crowd as well, keeping the woman in his line of sight the whole time. He wasn't letting her get away this time. He had almost made it to the edge as well, when he heard the most annoying voice yell, "Courtney!"  
  
People all around turned to look at where the voice was coming from. It had very rudely interrupted their conversations or their note taking. Jason thought nothing of it though, and kept going, but when he looked over at her again, she had stopped and was looking wildly around. Was she Courtney?  
  
***  
  
Courtney stopped in her tracks and looked madly around. Who had called her? How did someone know who she was? Where she was? Unless...  
  
"Oh, Courtney!" A waving hand was seen over the top of all the heads, and it was decked out in bangles and sparkles. "Over here Courtney!"  
  
At once Courtney realized who it was, and couldn't believe she hadn't known sooner. She tried to back up and make it out of the crowd but Skye emerged in front of Courtney before she could make it.   
  
"Courtney! Ohmigod, what are you doing here? I saw you when you first got here, I mean who could miss you, you're so gorgeous and everything but I was all, 'No way that's Courtney. She wouldn't be here.' But here you are! And oh my, you look fabulous as always, and aren't you just so professional with your briefcase and your little suit. So cute!"  
  
Courtney grimaced, but it must have looked like a smile to Skye because she grinned sunnily back at Courtney and started babbling again. Courtney shook her head and rolled her shoulders. Then she started backing up, ever so slightly. Maybe she could get away, while Skye was listening to her own voice.   
  
But as she was backing up she ran into someone, and looked up into the most gorgeously blue sapphire eyes.  
  
tbc.. Once again, I love feedback! 


End file.
